The Hidden Prince

Screams echo through the palace in Jerusalem. In the confusion, a woman slips down a corridor holding a baby tight against her chest, with his nurse close behind. She does not stop running until she reaches a hidden bedroom.

About a hundred and fifty years after King David, the kingdom of Judah is in danger. King Ahaziah has been killed. His mother, Athaliah, is a daughter of the house of Ahab and Jezebel, the rulers of the northern kingdom who led Israel into the worship of Baal. When Athaliah sees that her son is dead, she does something terrible. She sets out to destroy all the royal family, her own grandsons, so that she can rule alone. If she succeeds, there will be no son of David left. God's promise to David, that his line would endure for ever, hangs by a thread.

But there is one person Athaliah does not count on. Her name is Jehosheba. She is a daughter of King Joram, a sister of the murdered king, and so the aunt of the little princes. The book of Chronicles tells us she was also the wife of the high priest, Jehoiada. While the killing is going on, Jehosheba takes Joash, one of the king's sons, just a baby, and steals him away from among the princes who are about to die. She hides him and his nurse in a bedroom. Then she takes him to the house of the Lord, the temple. And there, for six years, the little prince grows up in hiding, while Athaliah rules the land.

In the seventh year, Jehoiada the priest makes his move. He sends for the commanders of the royal guard and brings them into the temple. He makes them swear an oath. And then he shows them the king's son. Imagine their faces. A boy they thought was dead, alive, standing in front of them. Jehoiada lays out a careful plan. On the Sabbath, when the guards change shifts, one group will guard the palace, others the gates, and the rest will surround the boy in the temple, weapons in hand. Whoever comes inside the ranks is to be stopped. Stay with the king, he says, wherever he goes. Jehoiada even hands the commanders King David's own spears and shields, kept in the temple.

The day comes. The guards stand in place, from one side of the temple to the other, around the altar. Then Jehoiada brings out the young prince, just seven years old. He puts the crown on his head and gives him the testimony, a copy of God's law. They proclaim him king and anoint him. And the people clap their hands and shout, “God save the king.” Athaliah hears the noise and rushes into the temple. There is the boy king, standing by the pillar, with trumpets sounding and the people rejoicing. Her plan has failed. The line of David, hidden for six years in God's house, steps back into the light.

Was there really a house of David? In nineteen ninety-three, archaeologists at Tel Dan in northern Israel found pieces of a stone monument written in Aramaic by a king of Damascus. He boasts of defeating a king of Israel and a king of the house of David. It dates to the ninth century before Christ, the same century as this story, and it is the earliest known mention of David's dynasty outside the Bible.

You'll find this story in Second Kings chapter eleven, verses one to twelve. A brave aunt and a faithful priest kept one baby alive, and God's promise to David went on. Centuries later, another king named Herod would try to kill a baby of David's line, and God would protect him too. So here is a question to carry with you. Jehosheba acted bravely when it mattered most. What small, brave thing could you do to protect someone else?